Local Players Seek State Tennis Titles

Friday, May 23, 2014
- by B.B. Branton

MURFREESBORO - Prep tennis players from Notre Dame, McCallie, Baylor and GPS seek to end the 2014 season with state titles here Friday morning at Spring Fling state tennis finals at the Old Fort Park Tennis Complex.

D-I A-AA Boys Doubles (Noon EDT) - Notre Dame's J.R. Davis and Charles Jabaley carry a 22-0 season mark into an all-Catholic final facing Jacob Lorino-Stephen Lorino (Knox Catholic) ... "At the start of the season I thought we had a good chance to get to the state tournament and now we are one win from a championship," said Jabaley .. Notre Dame has had a singles state champ (Chris Brown (962-63-64) but never a boys doubles champion.

D-II AA Girls Singles (10 a.m. EDT): Michelle Fleenor (GPS) faces Grace Summers (Sr. St. Benedict) for the singles title ... Fleenor will play at Washington and Lee in the fall ... Sarah Evans was the last GPS player to win singles (2010) ... St. Benedict has never had a singles state champ.

D-II AA Girls Doubles (10 a.m. EDT): In an all-Baylor final, Samantha Caswell-McCall Morgan face Drew Haskins-Maggie Crumbliss ... Caswell goes for her seventh state medal; team (4)/individual (2 singles) ... she will play at UTC in the fall.

Three Different Titles: A win puts Caswell on the list of players to win team, singles and doubles state championships ... the last girl to win all three was Hayly Humphreys of Hutchison with a singles and team titles in 2009 and doubles in 2010 with Maggie Donoghue ...

Name From the Past: One other girl of many who have won all three titles was Red Bank's Susan Hill who claimed three singles (1975-76-77), two doubles with Beth Dixon (1975-76) and a pair of team crowns (1975-76)

Most Medals (8): Current Knox Webb senior Anna Catharine Feaster (8) has won five team medals and three state singles championships ... she goes for No.9 in the morning as she plays in the D-II A singles final ... She will play tennis at Davidson College in the fall.

Knox Webb alum Berkeley Brock (N.C. State) also has 8 medals; five doubles and three team titles last decade.

Three Other Matches Worth Watching:

D-I A-AA Girls Singles (10 a.m. EDT): The South's No.1 player in 16s - Danielle Vines (Elizabethton), takes on two-time defending champion Skylar McDonald (Fayetteville) ... Vines was home schooled until this year and is a 15-year-old sophomore ... the two are friends and have been teammates in Jr. Davis Cup competition ... Vines has not lost a game in high school competition this season.

McDonald had a hard fought semis win against Hannah Henry (Chattanooga Christian), 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 ... Henry has a state doubles and state team medal.

D-II A Girls Singles (10 a.m. EDT): Going For Four - Anna Catharine Feaster (Knox Webb) seeks a state record fourth singles title as she faces Claire Sullivan (St. George's) who won a state doubles title in 2013 ... Feaster is one of seven girls to have three singles titles in TSSAA history,

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